Companies that thrived during a recession (and how they did it)
New Zealand business recession stories In 2006, Rod Drury founded Xero, a cloud-based accounting software company in New Zealand. When the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2008, businesses struggled, but Xero saw an opportunity. They recognised that small...
Thank you, Gilligan Sheppard
When I first began working for Gilligan Sheppard, my experience and knowledge of marketing and accounting (this one is obvious) were fairly limited. Despite failing the ‘spelling test,’ Lisa and Debra took a chance on me. Perhaps it was because of ‘team fit’, and they...
KPIs are dead: long live personal goals
A KPI is short for a key performance indicator used to measure your employee’s performance. They can be financial, customer, or process-focused. The thing is, generationally, I believe we’ve moved away from using them, and for some businesses, they haven’t even...
Caught up in a fast-paced world
Monday morning begins. The predictable annoyance of the alarm clock melody pulls me out of bed, and muscle memory takes charge. There’s no time to spare. Two outfit changes and a coffee down the hatch. The door shuts behind me as I quickly jog my three tote bags to...